ROGER Harris spotted three of his relatives in the picture of a party about to leave for London in a charabanc (Memory Lane, August 16).
His father, Bert, and grandparents, Henry and Alice, were among those heading to Wembley for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition.
The picture, in immaculate condition, was found during a clearout of the Witney offices of our sister paper, the Witney Gazette.
After the picture was published in Memory Lane, Roger, of Well Lane, Curbridge, near Witney, called to say that he had given the picture to the Gazette 10 years ago and had never had it back.
He tells me that his father and grandfather worked on the estate owned by Major or General Fielding at Ducklington – land on which Cokethorpe School is now built.
He believes the outing was organised by Fielding for his staff and possibly other villagers of Ducklington.
Another reader, Nick Taylor, has supplied a possible name for the driver of the charabanc, owned by City of Oxford Motor Services, now Oxford Bus Company.
He writes: “His moustache leads me to think it may be ‘Digger’ Stanley, who used to live in the Clive Road area of Oxford. He must have died about 40 years ago, but someone may remember him.”
He tells me that in 1924, the company had 10 charabancs–- two with 18 seats, six with 28 and two with 33.
Earlier, it had had as many as 28, but at the start of the 1914-18 war, the Army had commandeered 12 of the chassis for use as lorries.
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